


Ghost Stories

by Yatzstar



Category: Ant-Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) Spoilers, Gen, Happy Ending, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Pre-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-10
Updated: 2018-08-15
Packaged: 2019-06-24 17:42:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15635580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yatzstar/pseuds/Yatzstar
Summary: He could never replace her father, but he could do his best to fill in the gap. A two-shot focusing on the relationship between Ava Starr and Bill Foster.





	1. Chapter 1

**This was originally meant to be a oneshot, but it got so long I separated it into two parts. Expect the next part soon!**

Ava was seven when her parents were killed. The firemen whisked her off to a hospital, and she never saw their bodies again. She didn't even get to go to the funeral.

After two days of lying in the hospital, barely able to eat without her hands phasing through the utensils, some new people showed up, dressed in fancy suits.

"Hello, Ava," said the man in charge, smiling a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "We are part of an organization called SHIELD, and we are here to take care of you."

She went with them, mostly because she didn't have a choice. What she wanted was to go home, but she couldn't. Her parents were gone, and there was something wrong with her body. Dull pain throbbed through every part of her, and no amount of medicine seemed to help.

They took her into the United States. She had always wanted to visit with her father one day, but now she was visiting with SHIELD agents who seemed to see her as more of an interesting specimen than a frightened, traumatized little girl.

The first two days at the facility they called "The Playground"—though it was anything but—were a whirlwind for her. They drew her blood, hooked her up to various things, and asked her to use her powers in front of people in white coats and clipboards. At the end of the first day she was sent off to a gray, dull room with a tray of tasteless food. She cried herself to sleep that night, feeling helpless and utterly alone.

The next day was a similar whirlwind. More bloodwork and medical tests took up her entire day, and come the evening they left her in that gray room again, but she was glad of the chance to rest. When a knock came at the door, she frowned at the interruption, but she turned around as it opened.

A man entered, his large frame seeming to take up the entire room. She watched him carefully, wondering what tests he would make her do.

"Hello, Ava," he said softly, gently. "My name's Bill. I was a friend of your father's." He knelt down to her level, something no other agent had bothered to do in her time there, and held out a teddy bear to her. "I brought you something."

She wanted the bear more than anything, but she knew it was just a test. Even so, she reached forward to try and take it, but her hands phased right through, and she frowned in disappointment.

"It's alright," he encouraged. "Try again."

She was momentarily taken aback. He wanted her to have it? She focused on solidifying her hands and tried again. This time her fingers entangled in the downy fur of the bear, and she smiled.

"That's it," said Bill, smiling himself.

"Ca—can I keep it?" Ava asked, her voice rough and hoarse from disuse.

"Of course," he replied. "It's yours."

Bill became a support to her in the chaos of her new life. Almost every night he would visit her, ask her about things like what she enjoyed, what her home was like, and so on. It took her a while to open up to him, but once she did, words came tumbling from her like a stream and it was hard to stop.

The pain in her body became worse and worse with each day, and one night it was so bad that Bill found her crumpled on her bed, cradling the teddy bear and weeping silently.

"Ava!" he exclaimed, rushing to her side. "What's the matter?"

"It hurts!" she wailed. "It hurts so bad!"

"Where?"

"Everywhere!"

He had stayed with her that night, holding her and rubbing her back until the pain subsided to a manageable amount and she fell into a blessed sleep.

A few days later, Bill came and got her himself in the morning. She shyly asked if she could take her teddy with her, which the other agents never let her do, and he gave her permission much to her delight.

"Where are we going?" she asked, holding her bear in one hand and clinging to his hand with the other.

"We're going somewhere to help your pain," he replied.

Doctors hooked her up to a machine, and she forced herself to stay solid as they attached leads to her arms, legs, and torso. She glanced nervously at Bill, who gave her an encouraging nod.

They turned the machine on, and warmth pulsed through her, banishing the throbbing ache that forever lingered under her skin. She let out a sigh of relief, feeling more in control of herself than she had in months.

"How do you feel?" Bill asked her.

"Good," she breathed, smiling for the first time in days.

When he first took her to the quantum chamber, she was scared. The structure was intimidating, and she had never seen anything like it before. However, he encouraged her to step in, so she did.

The waves of energy frightened her at first, but as they washed over her, she began to feel better, more whole. Bill was ecstatic that it worked, and she started having weekly sessions in the quantum chamber to abate the pain.

The incessant testing from SHIELD continued, and eventually it was her eighth birthday. She knew it was her birthday, but no one else seemed to care if they knew at all. The day passed uneventfully until the evening, when Bill came to see her. She was rendered speechless as he presented her with a tiny cupcake, sprinkles and all.

"You knew?" she asked him.

"I did," he replied. "Happy birthday, Ava."

Not long after that, they started training her. They fitted her with a suit that was supposed to help her harness her powers, but Ava didn't like it. It felt clunky and it made her move slowly and awkwardly. They began to teach her how to fight, introducing her to various martial arts and integrating it with her powers. Most days they ran her ragged, and she could sense Bill's displeasure when she nearly nodded off into her dinner. He reassured her that his irritation was not directed at her; it was directed at the higher-ups at the facility, who apparently had nothing better to do than train a child to fight.

She began to learn more about her powers, and she was excited when she figured out she could turn completely invisible. That very night, she turned invisible and lurked in the corner of her room, waiting. When Bill entered, she took delight in the confused look on his face when he saw she wasn't there.

"Ava? Are you in here?"

She jumped at him then, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. He yelped in surprise, only to let out a sigh of relief when he twisted around and saw it was her.

"Where were you hiding?"

She giggled. "I can turn invisible."

He smiled. "So you can."

One day, she was paid a visit by a new agent, a man she had never seen before. Phil Coulson, he said his name was, and he was kindly, reminding her of Bill.

"Are they treating you well here, Miss Starr?" he asked her. "It's not very often that SHIELD deals with children."

 _No,_  she wanted to say.  _They make me train to fight until I'm exhausted and they experiment on me. I want to go home to Argentina, and can Mr. Foster come too, please?_

But out of fear of retribution from the agents, she didn't say that.

"They treat me fine, Agent," she replied quietly.

Coulson smiled. "Good. I wish you all the best, Miss Starr."

When she was nine, she accidentally let her true thoughts free.

Bill came to get her in the morning, which was something he had never done before.

"Get your shoes on," he told her.

"Where are we going?"

"Outside."

She whirled to face him, her eyes wide. "Outside? You mean outside outside?"

He laughed. "Yes, outside. No one should spend all their time in some facility. You need to get some fresh air for once."

She jumped up and down, the prospect of feeling the sun on her face and breathing fresh air for the first time in months exciting her beyond belief. "Thank you so much dad—" The word slipped out before she could stop herself, and she slapped a hand over her mouth, mortified. For a moment neither of them said anything, both in equal states of shock.

"I'm sorry," she finally whispered. "I shouldn't have said that. I don't—"

"Ava," Bill said softly, "it's alright."

"No, it's not," she replied. "I know you're not…" She trailed off, at a loss for words.

He knelt in front of her. "Is that how you think of me?"

She bowed her head and nodded.

"Would you like to call me your father?"

She peeked at him through her hair, and found no malice in his face. In fact, there seemed to be a look of hope. Again, she nodded, more confident.

"Then I would be more than happy to call you my daughter," he said. "I know I can never replace your real father, but I can do my best to fill the gap."

Ava leapt at him, wrapping her arms around his neck as tears welled in her eyes. "Thank you."

He brought her things, bits and pieces of the outside world she was otherwise isolated from. He brought her books to read and pencil and paper to draw on. He took her outside whenever possible, though she was always hyper aware of the security agents watching their every move. It wasn't fair to her. All she wanted to do was feel the grass between her toes.

She continued to grow in her fighting skills as the SHIELD agents trained her, no matter how vehemently Bill voiced his disapproval. They started calling her the Ghost, and she wished she was a real ghost, because ghosts didn't feel pain. Her skills in fighting grew, but so did the agony in her body. The weekly sessions in the quantum chamber gradually did less and less to abate the pain, so Bill had her go in twice a week, then three, then four, then five.

When she was twelve, she started sleeping in the quantum chamber.

Bill did his best to make it comfortable for her, knowing she did not like the idea. He spent the first night with her, sleeping on the hard lab floor just to show her that no harm would come to her. After that, her confidence was raised significantly and she slept by herself.

When she was thirteen, she did her first mission for SHIELD.

It was only a small task, they insisted, just retrieving some sensitive data from some people who shouldn't have it. She didn't want to, and Bill came to her aid.

"These people will be armed with guns," he argued to the head agent. "She's a child!"

"A gifted child," the head agent replied, "and we have made the Ghost suit bulletproof, just in case a bullet finds its way through her phasing abilities. I'm afraid you're in no position to argue with me, Mr. Foster."

Bill returned to her, sober and grim, and she knew the verdict on convincing the head agent otherwise would not be good.

"They're going to make me do it, aren't they?" she asked.

"Yes," he said with a heavy sigh. His hair was beginning to turn gray, and it was not hard for Ava to guess why.

"Will they kill me?"

"No," he reassured her. "The suit will keep you safe. I'd go on that mission myself if it would keep you from getting hurt."

So she went on the mission, slinking into the building in the dead of night while SHIELD agents waited in a van a block away. As expected, she came upon the heavily armed night watchmen on her way to retrieve the information. There were two of them, both burly and well muscled. She came up behind one of them, invisible, and put him in a chokehold like she had been taught, forcing herself to stay solid despite her raging fear. The man gasped and gagged, thrashing but not able to strike what he could not see. The other turned, confused and afraid to see his companion gasping for air against nothing. He raised his automatic rifle, looking for the culprit, but not able to see.

Ava swallowed hard as the man finally went limp in her grasp. She let him go, and he slumped to the floor. The next thing she knew, an ear-shattering noise exploded near her, and something bounced off the stomach of her suit. She looked up and saw the man staring at her, his gun pointed directly at her, and she realized she must have become visible, if not for a second. Not knowing what else to do, she ran at him and waylaid him rather quickly, though he did manage to get a couple more shots at her before she smashed the gun out of his hand.

She retrieved the necessary information from the computers in the building and returned to the van as quickly as possible. She told the agents what they needed to know and remained silent after that, staring at the wall until they returned to the facility.

She did not expect Bill to be there at 3 AM, but he was, waiting for her. It wasn't until she saw him that she realized her whole body was shaking, and she practically fell into his arms.

"Are you alright?" he asked her urgently. "Are you hurt?"

"No," she said, unable to keep the tremor from her voice. "But they shot at me, and I was scared. I don't want to do that again."

"I know," he said sadly as he held her tightly to him. "I don't want you to either."

Of course, SHIELD didn't care what either of them wanted. No matter how much Bill tried, they would not stop sending her on missions. It gradually became easier for her, the fear of being shot at fading away when she realized her suit was impenetrable, all inhibitions consumed in an ever-worsening pain.

When she was sixteen, she killed a man for the first time.

Up until the day before the mission, she thought it was going to be the same as always, until the head agent called her into his office. She shuffled in, knowing well that nothing good would come of the meeting.

When she was told she would be eliminating a potential threat, she wanted nothing more than to back out, but she couldn't. Worse yet, she did not see Bill before she went out on the mission to tell him, which was most likely the head agent's doing do keep him from interfering.

She went on the mission, unable to keep from trembling the whole ride to the target's residence. She phased through the wall of the house, and found the man lounging on the couch watching TV. At her sudden entrance, he leapt up, and obviously used to dealing with dangerous people before, grabbed a loaded pistol from an accent table.

The bullets didn't stop her. She wished they did as she strode towards him. When she got too close, he swung at her, but his fist went right through her body, and she grabbed his head in her hands.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, her voice distorted by the mask.

She snapped his neck and his body crumpled to the floor. For a small eternity all she could do was stare, blood pounding in her head. Then she turned and ran with a loud cry, phasing back out into the night. For an instant, she thought about running away, but she couldn't. SHIELD would find her, likely kill her, if she did.

When she got back to the facility, she retreated to the quantum chamber as quickly as possible, huddling on the bed and letting the energy wash away the physical pain. But in that moment the pain that tore at her body every second was nothing compared to the anguish in her mind.

When Bill entered, she hardly heard him. His voice seemed distant and unreal.

"How did it go?"

She did not move, did not speak. She couldn't bear to look him in the eye. What would he, her  _father_ , think of her knowing she took the life of another? It was almost too much to consider.

"What's wrong?"

She swallowed, every muscle in her body atremble as panic swelled like a great balloon in her stomach.

"Ava?"

A sob burst from her lips. She couldn't stop it, no matter how hard she tried.

"Ava!" The door hissed open and he was there in front of her, his hands on her shoulders, trying to look her in the eyes. "What happened?"

"They made me kill him!" she exploded, her words coming out in a wail. "They made me! I didn't want to but they made me!" She dissolved into helpless sobs as Bill looked on in shock.

"They made you kill someone?"

She didn't answer him, she couldn't through the sobs that shook her whole body. He sat down beside her then, doing his best to hold her even though her emotions made her form vary in density.

She didn't remember falling asleep, but she awoke the next day with her blankets over her and her bear beside her. The horror was still fresh in her mind, and not having Bill there almost made her panic again, but she made it through the day with the hope of seeing him that evening.

Only he did not come.

She stayed up long into the night, but he didn't come and she eventually fell asleep. She reasoned to herself that it had happened before, that sometimes he got caught up in something that took up time, but he always came back the next day.

But he did not come the next night either.

Her worry grew. Had what she had done driven him away? Was he so disgusted with her that he had given up? With each passing moment her worry grew, until she learned the truth.

She learned from the whispers between agents that he had gone to the head agent and had punched him in the face as many times as he could before he was dragged away.

"You make a child kill for you?" he had yelled as he laid into the head agent. "She's innocent! She's done nothing to deserve what you've put her through!"

Ava was proud of him.

A week later, he finally returned to her.

She lay on her bed, reading as the pain of the day was washed away. The door to the room opened, and she looked up to see Bill enter in.

"Dad," she breathed, phasing through the plexiglass to get to him. In her whirlwind of emotions her arms phased right through his, but he managed to catch her around the middle.

"I'm sorry," he murmured into her hair. "I'm so sorry."

"I heard what you did," she mumbled into his shirt, hot tears stinging her eyes.

"I shouldn't have. I was angry and I—"

"No," she interrupted, looking up at him as the tears streamed freely down her face. "I'm glad you did."

Bill swallowed hard and smiled.

"Why can't we leave?" she wondered aloud to him later on that same evening. "Why do I have to stay here?"

"That's what I was doing these past few days," Bill said. "I was preparing get you out of here."

Her heart rose. "Really?"

"Yes, but…"

Her heart sank back down again. She wouldn't be so fortunate.

Bill looked just as disheartened as she felt. "They promised me that if you stay here, they will find a cure for your pain."

No more pain. A tantalizing thought to Ava, to be rid of the hurt that plagued her. But without a doubt, it would come with a price.

"Will they make me kill again?"

Bill did not answer, and that was all the answer she needed.

They did make her kill again, and to Ava's horror, it got easier. All the terror and trauma she felt was slowly chipped away by the thrumming agony in her body, and the desperation for the cure that was promised to her.

When she was twenty, SHIELD fell.

She was doing her usual training when the familiar sound of gunfire reached her ears. Confused and fearful, she phased partially through the wall to see what was going on. Agents were turning on each other, pulling guns and shooting each other. People ran and yelled, and the word "HYDRA" reached her ears.

She ran, not knowing what else to do. She phased through walls, people, and dead bodies. She made it to the quantum chamber and huddled there, invisible. Why everyone had suddenly turned on each other she did not know, but she was afraid. She could only hope that Bill was nowhere in the facility.

She sat there for what seemed like hours, the sounds of chaos raging around her. When the door swung open, she prepared herself for the worst, only to see Bill stumbling in, bleeding from a cut on his head. She was up and beside him, holding onto him to keep him upright.

"What's happening?" she asked. "What's going on?"

"SHIELD has fallen," Bill said, reaching up to touch the blood on his face. "Something happened at the Triskelion…I don't know what, but we need to get out of here."

"We're leaving?" she breathed. "For good?"

"For good."

A storm of emotions grew inside her, but there was no time to dwell on it then. They had to get out.

Bill pulled a strange metal disk out of his pocket, and before she could ask him what it was, he threw it at her quantum chamber. The next thing she knew, the chamber was the size of small box.

"What…?"

"Questions later," he said, picking up the mini chamber. "We have to go."

Ava, equipped with the Ghost suit, went first while Bill did his best to hunker his large frame down behind her. By that point, the fighting had died down. Alarms rang throughout the building, filling the halls with the eerie wails. They passed many dead agents on the floor, and they hoped they would not end up like them…until Ava rounded a corner and found herself staring down the barrel of a gun.

A satisfied smirk appeared on the face of the Playground's head agent. "I was hoping I might find you. Just my luck."

Ava glowered at him, but did not answer.

"HYRDA may be done for in D.C., but I can still use you. You're coming with me."

"I'll go nowhere with you," she hissed. "I'm done with SHIELD, HYDRA, whatever this was."

The head agent moved the gun slightly, pointing it directly at Bill's head. "Unless you want to see him die, you'll come with me."

"I will kill you if you touch him."

"I thought you had a vendetta against killing."

"Not for scum like you." Her hands shot out, one phasing through the gun and breaking it, the other wrapping around his neck. "Your days of using me are over." She squeezed, her fingers phasing through his skin and crushing his windpipe. His lifeless body crumpled to the floor, and that was the only time she killed without remorse.

They made it to Bill's car and sped away from the facility. Ava sat as they drove, having only seen what lay beyond the borders on missions.

"Where are we going?" she asked at last.

"To my house," Bill said, "and then…somewhere. I haven't decided yet." When she gave him a questioning look he continued. "The remaining agents might come for you. They know where I live, and they know you'll be with me. I have to relocate."

She nodded, falling into silence once again until a new question came to mind. "What about the cure? What will I do now that we've left them?"

Bill's jaw clenched visibly before he answered. "There…there was no cure. Years ago I found out they weren't researching for one at all, so I started doing my own."

Ava felt as if she had been punched in the stomach. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't want to put you through more torment than what you were already going through," he said. "I know it seems like a bad thing to do on my part, but I thought it was for the best."

"And…and what if you can't find a cure?" she whispered. "What then?"

He was silent for far too long before answering. "You will die." His voice wavered on the last word. "But I will do anything and everything I can to cure you, I promise."

"I stole for them, lied for them," she hissed. "I killed for them, and they would let me shrivel and die."

"I'm just as angry as you," said he. "Even more so, perhaps. I couldn't stop them from mistreating you no matter how hard I tried, because it would mean more pain for us both."

"I know," she assured him. "I know."

They stopped at Bill's house briefly, a small dwelling fit for a man living alone. Ava didn't even get to see the inside, as Bill hurried to load research and other miscellaneous things into the back of the car, charging her with keeping watch for any rogue agents that might be coming for them. Within half an hour they were off again, to parts unknown.

The next couple of weeks were spent bouncing from hotel to hotel while a Bill did his best to sort out a new location for the both of them. Fortunately, SHIELD paid well enough that they had a nice cushion to fall back on to keep them going. Even though they were far away from the Playground, Ava still found herself looking over her shoulder all the time, knowing the ferocity and determination of agents trying to get what they wanted.

During that time, they also learned of what had happened to SHIELD. A man named Steve Rogers of the notorious Avengers had learned of the rampant corruption within the organization and brought it to the ground. That very day in all facilities all over the world, true SHIELD members had gone against those outed as corrupt, to deadly ends.

"The head agent was HYDRA," Ava said upon learning these things. "I have no doubt about it."

"Neither do I," Bill said.

"One day I'd like to meet him."

"Who?"

"Captain America," she replied. "We owe him our freedom."

Eventually Bill found a nice house and a job at U.C. Berkeley. The thought of living in a big city was jointly exhilarating and terrifying for Ava, as she knew she could never show her powers in public lest they be discovered by agents.

They arrived at the house at night. It was small and the architecture was old, and she loved it. She had never seen a more beautiful house, and she would live in it.

"Where will we sleep?" she asked Bill as they unloaded their meager possessions.

"The house came with furniture," he said. "There's no need to worry about that."

She could've cried. He thought of everything.

The interior, though likely far from extravagant by ordinary means, was like a palace to her. After thirteen years spent in a sterile, gray facility, the colors and complexity were astonishing and wonderful.

As Bill made to check the rest of the house, she stepped into the living room. The floor was adorned with carpet that her feet sank into, and she couldn't remember a sensation so wonderful as that. She knelt down, tearing off a glove of her suit, and touched the carpet with her fingers, reveling in its softness. Bill found her like that, crouched over the carpet with a hand in it and tears on her face.

"What's the matter?" Bill asked, concern evident in his voice as he approached. "Is there something wrong?"

"It's nothing," Ava sniffed. "It's just…I haven't felt carpet since my parents died."

The next week was an adjustment period for the both of them as they adapted to living in a new area. The house had two bedrooms and two bathrooms, so they each had their own space. Ava had nothing to personalize her room with, save for a teddy bear and a quantum chamber. Bill brought her things; paintings, a vase of flowers, curtains to make it more her own, and she was happy. At SHIELD, they never let her personalize her room.

On Sunday, Bill told her he was starting work the next day.

"You'll leave me alone here?" Ava asked, panic welling in her chest. "What if something happens? What if the agents come?"

"I'm confident nothing will happen," Bill said. "Even if something did, I'm ten minutes away, and I'm sure you are more than capable of taking care of whoever might try to attack us."

She wasn't happy, but she had no choice but to go along with it. She watched him leave on the first day and spent the rest of the day patrolling the house, phone clutched tightly in her hands. But that evening he returned safely to her relief. Eventually she adapted to him being gone during the day, and entertained herself by watching TV or reading when she was taking a break from researching the quantum realm.

They lived for the next year in relative comfort, though there was no progress made on the research for Ava's cure.

When she was twenty-one, a man named Scott Lang went to the quantum realm and returned alive.

She had no idea about it until a few days after it happened. Bill returned from work excited and told her what had happened. She then went on to learn of the fate of Janet van Dyne, the wife of a former colleague.

"What this man did could be the key to curing you," he said. "If we can figure out a way to get into the quantum realm and find van Dyne, the energy she has could make you stable."

"But will we be able to do it?" she asked. "It sounds complicated."

"I worked with Pym for years, and I was always better than him."

She learned more about the man named Hank Pym over time. She learned of how he had betrayed her father, both her real one and her adoptive one. Had it not been for him, perhaps her real father would be alive and she would not have suffered all she did, and a burning resentment for the man she had never even met settled deep in her heart.

Bill knew what to do, but advanced technology was expensive, and without SHIELD to helm funding, they were left dead in the water despite their best efforts.

When she was twenty-three, she learned of her swiftly approaching fate.

The pain had reached a point where the quantum chamber did the barest minimum to stop it, allowing her just enough relief to sleep. Some days the pain was manageable, some does it left her unable to move in agony.

One day as she lay immobile on her bed, Bill crouched next to her, she said, "I feel like I'm dying."

She got an unexpected reaction from Bill. His eyes went wide and he grabbed her hand. "No, you can't be. You're fine, you've got to be…"

Ava frowned, momentarily forgetting her pain. "I'm not dying really…I think."

Bill let out a shaky sigh and sat back, covering his face with his hands.

Using all the strength she had, she propped herself up on one arm. "What is it?"

He let his hands fall limply into his lap, but he would not meet her gaze. "Your condition is deteriorating. Your body cannot handle the quantum disequilibrium forever. Eventually it will give out and…"

"…I'll die," she finished in a whisper. "How long do I have?"

"At this rate, maybe a year," he murmured. "But I'll do anything to save you, even if it means breaking the law."

She had known in her heart than one day all the pain would come to something, but she had ignored it for as long as she could. Now her death was a reality, but she was not ready to die. "Then let's break it. I'm a trained thief, and I'll do anything. Where do we start?"

Bill looked at her. "We steal the technology from Hank Pym."

"I want to kill him," she said. "I want him to pay for all this pain."

"If you do that, you're no better than him," Bill said. "You can't."

She didn't agree at first, but eventually she went along with it.

What they did not know was that Hank and his daughter had gone into hiding after an apparent clash of the Avengers, his technology in violation of the Sokovia Accords, and finding a man who could shrink to the size of an ant was nearly impossible. They spent the next nine months searching fruitlessly. They came close more than once, but he was always out of their reach.

Ava was growing more desperate by the day. She didn't want to die, and she could see how much everything strained Bill. She was willing to do anything at that point, even kill.

One Saturday night, when the pain was bearable, she slunk out of the house. There was a church a block away, and she found herself asking forgiveness for the things she had done and would do, just in case.

When she was twenty-four, she was healed.

She had a month left when they found Sonny Burch. He was as slimy as they came, but he was their only hope. He had somehow acquired pieces for a quantum tunnel from the remnants of SHIELD, and was selling them on the black market. Bill set up a meeting with him, and she went to it, only to found out that a woman named "Susan" had made a higher bid on the parts than them. She tracked her down only to find out that "Susan" was none other than Hope van Dyne. Upon watching the Pyms, she learned of their own need for the quantum tunnel, and Scott Lang's apparent entanglement with Janet.

She finally managed to steal the lab, but the very same day she accomplished it, Bill called her, saying that the Pyms were coming to him for help getting it back.

"You're going to lead them here?" Ava hissed into the phone.

"Yes," Bill replied calmly. "And then we'll have both the lab and Scott Lang."

She went along with it, finally obtaining a chance to unleash her vitriol upon Hank Pym, but of course things went wrong. The lab was taken from them, and she cried in frustration.

She was furious when Bill wouldn't let her use Lang's daughter as a bargaining chip, and when they managed to get the lab a second time, he started having doubt for her safety, and for Janet's. She was sure he was getting ready to give up on her and let her die, and her anger grew against him. She threw him to the ground when he tried to stop her from extracting Janet, an action she later deeply regretted.

When Janet came out of the quantum realm, she thought it was all over, that she would fade away and die. But Janet, seeing her pain, healed her for the time being. She could have cried, the pain leaving her for the first time in seventeen long years.

Yet still all was not well. Her actions would surely land her in prison at the very least. She begged Bill to leave her, to find peace somewhere now that she was healed.

"I'm not leaving you," he said.

She stared at him and saw nothing but determination in his gaze. There was no arguing with him, and she hugged him with all her might.

**The next part will cover what happens to them after, along with the events of IW, but don't worry, happy endings for all!**


	2. Chapter 2

Then they were on the run again, bouncing from hotel to hotel. Where they were going had yet to be decided, and Ava almost didn’t know what to do with herself now that she was no longer being torn apart from the inside.

“Why would you not let me use the Lang girl?” she asked one night as they sat in a hotel under assumed names she could barely remember.

“Because I know what it’s like to be powerless while my daughter suffers,” he replied softly. “I would not wish that on another man, no matter the circumstances.”

A few weeks passed, relatively uneventful until one afternoon when a knock came at their hotel room door. Bill was searching for places to live while Ava dozed on her bed in painless bliss when the sharp noise shattered the peace. She was up in an instant, casting a fearful look at Bill, who gestured for her to remain quiet as he set down his laptop and headed for the door.

“Who is it?” he called, stopping just short of the door.

“It’s Luis, a friend of Scott Lang!”

Bill gave Ava a confused look while she wracked her brain for who it could possibly be. Her mind settled on the blabbering oaf tied to a chair by Sonny Burch, terrified by her sudden appearance.

“He’s harmless,” she grunted, standing and coming to unlock the door.

Luis grinned the same silly grin as the door flew open. “Hey Mr. Foster, hey Ms. Ghost! It’s good to see you when you’re not trying to kill—”

Ava grabbed him by the collar and jerked him inside, slamming the door shut behind them. “Be careful what you say. We’re criminals.”

“Right, right, sorry,” Luis said, still seeming intimidated by her.

“Why are you here?” Bill spoke up. “What does Hank want with us now?”

“Oh, this has nothing to do with Mr. Pym. Well, it kind of does, but—”

“Short version, please,” Ava gritted.

“Right, okay. After you guys went missing, Mrs. van Dyne realized what she did to you wouldn’t hold forever. Eventually you’re gonna become unstable again.”

Ava shared a glance with Bill, fear rippling down into her stomach. “And?”

“She really wants to help you out. She and Hank have come up with a smaller version of that cool quantum tunnel machine, and Scotty’s already tested it out. He can harvest this quantum energy stuff and Mrs. van Dyne thinks it’ll keep you stable for long periods of time. She sent me and my associates to track you guys down because we’re awesome like that.”

“And what does she want in return?” Ava asked skeptically. They always wanted something in return.

Luis shrugged. “Nothing.”

“Nothing?” Ava echoed. “You’re lying.”

“I’m telling the truth!” Luis said. “Besides, I still have some of that truth serum in my system and—”

“Where would we stay?” Bill interrupted. “I’m afraid labs are out of the question for both me and Ava.”

“Nah, nothing like that. The police never knew of your involvement in the whole thing, Mr. Foster, and since SHIELD no longer exists, neither do you, kinda like a ghost.” He grinned at his own pun and Ava scoffed. “You could return to the house you were living in and Mr. Foster could go back to his old job if he wanted to.”

Ava blinked. It all sounded too good to be true. She looked at Bill.

“Give us a second, please,” Bill said, and pulled Ava off to the other side of the room.

“What if this is a trick by Hank?” Ava murmured. “What if he wants to use my quantum energy for something—”

“I know Hank, and I know he’s done plenty of bad things, but I also know his wife. She is nothing like him. If she wants to help you with no cost, then she means it, and she won’t let her husband stop her.”

She mulled it over for a moment. It certainly seemed better than life on the run, especially with the prospect that she might become unstable again. “Alright. We’ll do it.”

Returning was awkward at first. The whole “Ava tried to kill them” thing hung over everyone’s head, understandably. The only one it didn’t seem to affect was Janet, who acted as an icebreaker.

The first time they came back to the lab, now set up in the middle of nowhere, Bill and Hank proceeded to glare at each other from across the room. Scott and Hope were also there, but they kept their eyes trained on their tasks, avoiding looking at the pair.

Ava wilted a little. Maybe it had been a bad idea to come back.

Janet had no such inhibitions. She had come across the room and wrapped Ava in a hug before she knew what was happening. “I’m so glad you decided to come back! I was afraid Luis wouldn’t be able to find you.”

Ava stood there for a moment, stunned into silence, before smiling crookedly. “I think I’m glad I came back too.”

Once Scott realized she was no longer out to get him, he was an open book. When Janet wanted to hook her up to a machine to test her instability, she was understandably nervous, and clung to Bill’s hand with all her might as Janet pressed electrodes onto her skin. At that point, Scott pulled up a chair in front of her and started talking. She focused on his words, trying not to think about the fact that she was hooked up to a machine, just like in SHIELD. He prattled on for a while, until Ava picked up something of interest in his words.

“…so this one time the Avengers called on me because I’m so awesome. I fought for Captain America himself—”

“Wait,” Ava interrupted. “You met Captain America?”

“Yeah.” A knowing grin appeared on his face. “Are you one of his fangirls?”

Beside her, Bill made a sound like an ill-concealed laugh, which she ignored. “I’m not a fangirl. I merely admire him, because without the fall of SHIELD, I would not be free. I’d like to meet him someday.”

“Yeah, I’d like to meet him again under circumstances where we don’t have to fight the other Avengers.”

“All done!”

Ava looked up in surprise at Janet. “Really?”

The older woman nodded. “I told you it wouldn’t be bad.”

Ava smiled her thanks at Scott. It seemed he wasn’t so bad after all.

Things settled into a sense of normalcy again over the next couple of weeks. Bill returned to his old job at Berkley, while Janet, Hope, Scott (and a begrudging Hank), worked on a machine that could harvest quantum energy. Ava spent her days at the lab or at the house, and she was beginning to feel like everything was alright.

Until half the world turned to ash.

She stayed at home that day, dozing on the couch while the TV blared some mindless programming in the background. She was jerked from her sleep when the noise suddenly switched to a newscast. She sat up, wondering if she had accidentally pressed the remote, until she listened to the broadcast.

“…we are bringing this to you from New York City, where only hours ago a spaceship crashed through several buildings. Some speculate that this might be a repeat of the 2012 invasion, as several members of the Avengers, as well as some newcomers, were seen fighting an alien.”

Ava leaned forward with interest. The view switched to some shaky phone footage of Iron Man fighting a giant alien alongside what looked like a wizard and another smaller figure in red. The camera then switched back to the live feed of the reporter, who was walking among the rubble of buildings and cars. She continued to watch the broadcast with interest, until something strange happened.

The reporter paused mid-sentence, an odd look coming over her face. A black speck drifted up from her body, which Ava at first thought might be a bug, until she saw the specks in multitude. With a jolt, she realized the reporter was disintegrating into dust, her body fizzling away. Without a word she vanished with a poof, the microphone clattering to the ground. Moments later, the camera went tumbling, specks of dust that belonged to the cameraman drifting in front of the lens. The speakers picked up the panicked cries of people in the streets, the camera captured the legs of people running to and fro in a panic before the feed cut completely to a test pattern.

Ava shot upright, running to the window just in time to see an empty car collide with a tree down the street. She snatched up the phone, shakily punching in the number and holding it to her ear. It took three rings for Bill to pick up, and those were without a doubt the scariest moments of her life.

“Ava!”

“Dad!” she half yelled, half wailed into the phone. “Something’s wrong!”

It took him far too long to get home. She paced the length of the living room more times than she cared to count as she waited, clutching the phone tightly in her hands. After an hour, he rolled up outside, and she flew to meet him, not bothering to open the door and instead phasing through it.

Bill caught her in a hug, and they both stood there for a long moment, each needing the assurance that the other was whole, real.

“I watched half my class turn to dust,” Bill whispered, his voice hollow with shock. “Everyone was running in the streets. There were cars everywhere, abandoned.”

“What do we do?” she asked.

“We wait. There’s nothing else we can do.”

All the TV stations were dead. Bill called Janet, Scott, Hope, even Hank, but he never got a response. Neither of them talked much, stunned by what had transpired, until there came a knock at the door that very night.

“Who is it?” Ava yelled.

“Luis!”

She had never thought she would be so happy to hear his voice in her life. She flung open the door and found him standing there, framed by the evening sky…with a little girl at his side.

“Who’s this?” Ava asked.

“I’m Cassie,” the girl replied for herself. “My daddy is Ant-Man.”

Ava flinched, taken aback. She had never expected to see the girl she wanted to use as a bargaining chip in person.

“Her mom and stepdad turned to ash, so she called me,” Luis explained. “I was just chilling at X-CON with Dave and Kurt, when all of a sudden, they just turned to dust! I was sitting there like ‘what happ’—”

“Could you get through to anyone?” Bill asked, interrupting his tirade.

“I tried calling Scotty, Mr. Pym, and Hope, but none of them picked up.”

Ava moved aside, letting them enter the house. “They’re probably gone too.”

“Well that’s what I thought, but then I remembered that Scotty was going into that crazy quantum place today.”

She blinked. “You think he could still be alive?”

Luis shrugged. “It’s worth a shot.”

Fortunately for them, Luis still possessed the obnoxiously colored racecar he had “borrowed” from the Pyms. They whizzed down the streets, underneath all the wrecked cars and around items dropped by people on the street.

Ava was fascinated by the undercarriages of the cars and the objects they passed. Suddenly dropped purses were like buildings and tires were tremendous obstacles. She was so engrossed in the sights that she nearly jumped out of her skin when someone touched her arm. She looked at Cassie Lang in the seat beside her, who she had almost successfully forgotten about.

“You’re the Ghost lady, aren’t you?” Cassie asked.

“Yes,” Ava answered hesitantly, wondering where the conversation was going. She had never talked to a child before, and had no idea what to expect.

“My daddy told me about you. He was fighting you at first, but now you’re good.”

“You could say that,” she murmured.

“He told me you were dying, and that’s why you did bad things.”

Ava glanced at her. At least her father told her the whole truth.

“Can you show me your powers?”

“I don’t—”

“Pleeeeeaaase?” Cassie gave her what must have been the epitome of “puppy-dog eyes”, and she found herself feeling guilty for resisting.

“Alright,” she relented, and held up a hand, allowing it to phase.

Cassie gasped, her eyes going wide with awe. “That’s so cool!” She put out her fingers and tried to touch her hand, but they went right through. “Daddy said you could walk through walls.”

Ava nodded. “And turn invisible.”

Cassie grinned and drew her hand away. “You’re so cool. You could be an Avenger!”

She was too pleased to respond, a warmth welling in her chest.

The lab was out in the middle of the woods, where a giant out of place building would not be noticed. When they arrived, the sun had set and the lab was dark. Everything was quiet, and inside the lab was quieter still.

“Scotty?” Luis bellowed. “Anybody?”

An eerie silence greeted them. They made their way through the building floor by floor, calling out names, and every floor they found empty their hearts sunk lower. Then they found the roof, and the small quantum tunnel, still activated and casting a strange glow over the rooftop.

“This is it!” Luis yelled, running towards the tunnel. “He’s probably still—”

“Wait!” Bill grabbed him by the back of his shirt, stopping him in his tracks. Ava came up behind them, ready to fight whatever gave them pause, but what she saw made her heart drop.

Gray dust littered the ground around the equipment. They did not have to guess who it belonged to.

“My daddy?” Cassie whispered.

Ava felt her throat squeeze shut, her eyes suddenly hot with tears. Fortunately she did not have to speak, as Luis was already moving carefully around the dust to the equipment. He snatched up the microphone dangling from one of the tables and clicked it experimentally.

“Scotty?” he yelled. “Scotty, can you hear us? Are you there?”

For a moment, there was nothing but static.

“Luis, is that you buddy?”

Ava let out a shaky breath of relief. Not everyone was gone.

“Yeah, man, it’s me. We’re here to get you out.”

“What happened to Hank, Hope and Janet? All of a sudden they just stopped responding! I’ve been floating here for hours.”

“I know this is gonna sound crazy, but all of a sudden people just started turning to dust!”

“What?”

“It’s true! Your ex and her guy disappeared too.”

“What about Cassie? Is she alright?”

Cassie seemed to realize that was her cue. She stepped around the dust carefully and took the microphone. “I’m here, daddy.”

They could all hear the smile in his voice when he replied. “Hey, Peanut. I’m glad you’re safe.”

Luis took the microphone back. “I also have Mr. Foster and Ghost here. They should be able to get you out.”

“Great.”

Bill stepped forward and began tinkering with the machinery. “Fortunately, it seems Hank hasn’t changed the way he designs things in years.”

The tunnel lit up with a blinding flash of light, and suddenly Scott was there crouching on the roof, clutching a tube of quantum energy to his chest.

“Daddy!” Cassie ran to him, nearly knocking him over with the force of her hug.

“It’s good to be back. I thought I’d be stuck in there forever.” Scott stood up, undoing his helmet. “What’s this about people turning to dust?” When they all looked at the ground, her followed their gazes, and his face paled. “That’s them?”

Luis nodded. “I don’t know what to tell you, man.”

Moving the lab felt like desecrating someone’s grave, so they left it, locked up tight. It was almost midnight when they made it back to the house, and they were all too tired to think of a coherent plan, so they slept on it.

But the next day they were just as clueless. Without Hope, Hank or Janet, they felt lost. The outside was world was too chaotic even for Ava, whose whole life had been nothing but. Luis tried to go out and “buy” groceries; in reality he tried to loot them like everyone else, and nearly got himself killed in the process.

“Looks like we’re eating ramen for the foreseeable future,” Scott grumbled, sifting through the meager pickings in the tattered bags. “You couldn’t get _anything_ else?”

“I wanted to get out before I got mobbed!” Luis retorted. “People are crazy.”

“So are you.”

“Next time, I’m going for food,” Ava proclaimed, and when Bill gave her a disapproving look, she added, “I’m the most bulletproof out of all of us.”

Luis shrugged. “I won’t argue with that.”

That night, looters tried to break into the house. It was clear they expected most houses to be abandoned by the obnoxiously loud way they talked to each other. Luis heard them coming from far away, giving them more than enough time to figure out what to do.

“I’ll take care of this,” Ava grumbled, squinting at the figures approaching on the dimly lit street.

“They could be dangerous,” Bill said.

“They haven’t met me,” she replied.

She put on the Ghost suit so there was no way she could be recognized in the future and waited until they were about to take a crowbar to the door to strike. She phased halfway through the door and grabbed the crowbar mid-swing. The man holding the other end shrieked in terror, but was cut off when her foot connected with his stomach, sending him tumbling off the porch. The three other men accompanying him just stared, eyes wide with horror. She flung the crowbar at them, and they scattered as it hit the ground where they were standing.

“Leave,” she told them. “If you return, I will not be so kind.”

All four men scrambled to get away, one even tripping and falling flat on his face. Ava bit back a laugh as she watched their figures retreat into the night. Satisfied with a job well done, she stepped back through the door.

“Gone?” Bill asked from his position at the end of the hall.

“Gone,” she affirmed.

Luis, Scott and Cassie came thumping down the stairs, somehow managing to be louder than the looters.

“That was awesome!” Luis said. “You totally bossed it! I wish I could be that cool.”

“You think we’ll get more looters?” Scott asked, only slightly more practical than his friend.

“Maybe,” Ava said, taking off the Ghost mask. “If they come, I’ll take care of them.” She went to get out of the suit, but she did not miss the proud smile on Bill’s face, nor the shining admiration in Cassie’s eyes.

For the first time in her life, she felt like she had done some good.

The next night, someone broke in. Ava had taken the couch so Cassie could have a bed to sleep in, while Scott, Luis and Bill all slept upstairs. She woke in the dead of night to the sound of the door creaking open. She knew it was locked, so whoever had entered knew how to pick locks. She remained perfectly still, watching the doorway into the hall. A dark figure moved down the hallway, but it was too dark to make anything out other than a faint outline.

She watched carefully until the person passed by the doorway, then she was up, across the room and through the wall in an instant. The person turned halfway in the start of an attempt to defend themselves, but she plunged a hand through their back before they could make it all the way.

“Move and you die,” she hissed.

“That’s a little extreme, don’t you think?” The voice replying was male, and slightly sarcastic.

As her eyes adjusted to the dark, she saw the man was holding a weapon of some sort. “Drop your weapons.”

“Now—”

“Drop them!” she growled, sinking her arm in a little further.

The item fell to the ground with a clatter.

“What are you doing here?” she asked. “Here to loot?”

“No,” the man replied, rather calmly. “I’m here for Scott Lang.”

“Why?”

“He’s a part of the Avengers, and in case you haven’t noticed, half the world is dead. We need all he help we can get. If you could just—”

“Scott!” she bellowed at the top of her lungs, knowing he was a deep sleeper. “Get down here!”

As movement was heard from upstairs, the man shifted a little. “You can take your arm out of my body now.”

“Not until he gets down here.”

The light came on, and Ava squinted, getting a good look at the man in front of her for the first time. He was middle-aged, light brown hair completely shaved on the sides of his head. He was dressed in some sort of tactical gear, and the weapon he had dropped was a bow of all things.

The first person down the stairs was Bill. His eyes widened fractionally at the sight that greeted him, and he stopped just short of them. “A robber?”

“He claims he’s here for Scott,” Ava replied.

“I am here for Scott,” said the man. “Don’t you know who I am?”

“No,” she snapped.

Bill squinted at the man. “Wait…Agent Barton?”

“Finally,” the man breathed. “And who might you be?”

“Bill Foster. I worked at SHIELD back in the day.”

“I remember you vaguely.” Barton glanced back at Ava. “Can you get your arm out of me?”

Ava looked to Bill and he nodded. “He’s safe.”

She withdrew her hand, and he gasped at the sensation. He turned and eyed her with something akin to admiration. “Who are you? I’ve never seen someone like you before.”

“My daughter,” Bill said, a hint of pride creeping into his voice. “Ava.”

“Quite the daughter you have.”

Scott came bumbling down the stairs, his hair sticking up in all directions. A just as frowsy Cassie and Luis followed behind, looking confused.

Scott halted on the bottom step, blinking and rubbing his eyes. “Clint? Is that you?”

“It’s me,” Clint said. “We need you.”

“It’s four in the morning!”

“Not in Wakanda.”

“Waka—what?”

“I’ll explain it all to you on the way. We need to go now. Cap and Tony are waiting with those that are left.”

“Alright, just let me get the suit.” Scott turned and stumbled back up the stairs.

In the silence that followed, Clint looked back at Ava, appraising her. “You seem to know what you’re doing. You could come with us if you want—”

“No,” Ava and Bill answered simultaneously.

Clint raised his hands in surrender. “Alright, I was just asking. I wasn’t sent to retrieve you.”

“I need to be here,” Ava murmured. “I need to protect them until things are fixed.”

“Yeah,” Luis said in between yawns. “She’s a beast!”

“I don’t blame you,” Clint said, his eyes flickering to Bill. “I lost my children and my wife. Consider yourself lucky.”

Before anything else could be said, Scott was coming back down the stairs, wearing a ratty pair of sneakers and a backpack slung over his shoulder.

“Ready to go?” Clint asked.

“Yeah.” Scott turned to Cassie. “I’m gonna go away for a little while, Peanut.”

 “Are you going to save the world?” she asked.

“I’ll try to.” He bent and kissed her head before turning to Clint. “Let’s go.”

The other man grabbed up his bow and started towards the door, Scott trailing behind him. A jet sat waiting in the yard, a machine that likely came from SHIELD technology. Clint and Scott walked up the ramp, Scott waving one last goodbye to his daughter. A minute later, the jet rose silently into the air and disappeared into the night.

Ava looked down at Cassie. She clung tightly to Luis’ arm, a conflicted look on her face as she searched the dark sky for any final traces of the jet.

“Your dad is going to save the world,” Luis assured her.

Ava knew this fact didn’t make it any less hard. She had just said goodbye to her last remaining parental figure who went off to war with an unknown threat, and for all they knew, he might never return.

“Get her back to bed,” Ava told Luis.

Luis nodded and shuffled off with Cassie, looking eager to be back in bed himself. Ava shut the door and locked it tight, double checking just to be sure. With a sigh, she trailed back to the living room, sinking heavily onto the couch.

Bill could tell something was amiss. He came and sat down beside her. “What is it?”

“I look at her and I see myself,” she mumbled. “She’s lost her mother and stepfather. Now her real father is gone too. It is hard to see that happen.”

“I know,” he agreed.

“And then I’m wondering…what if he never comes back?”

“He’ll come back. If Lang can survive the quantum realm and a face-off against you, I’m sure he can survive just about anything.”

Ava snorted. “I’m not _that_ dangerous.”

Bill smiled. “Agent Barton seems to think you are.”

“He’s from SHIELD…I don’t trust him.”

“He’s trustworthy. I knew him back in the day when he was just starting out, and from what I understand, he’s worked with the Avengers to save the world more than once.”

“What he said about his family disappearing…that was true?”

“Yes,” Bill said quietly. “It was.”

Ava sighed. As much as she had hoped, children were not even spared from the destruction, and it made her heart all the heavier.

The next two weeks were spent in the house, and Ava began to know what Scott felt like while he was on house arrest. Luis did his best to take care of Cassie, but Ava and Bill were far better at it than him. One night, she came downstairs well after midnight, and found them engrossed in a card game on the living room floor.

“Why is she still up?” Ava asked.

“We’re playing poker,” Luis replied, as if that explained everything.

“I can see that, but it’s way past her bedtime.”

“Aw, but I’m winning!” Cassie whined.

“I’m sure you are, but I don’t think your dad would approve of you being up so late.” She ushered the girl off to bed, shooting a glare at Luis as she went.

More looters tried to break into the house, and Ava was tasked with taking care of them. Most of the time they were sloppy and had no idea how to fight, especially against someone like her, but sometimes they were more skilled. Even so, she outmatched them, and managed to keep them away, but the constant fighting left her weary.

It was well into the third week when Ava was awoken by Bill calling her name. “Ava, come quick!”

She was up, stumbling through the table and the wall, thinking more looters had come. She phased into the kitchen and found Bill and Cassie standing in front of the TV, which was no longer only displaying a test pattern.

“…and the world has been restored to order, thanks to the valiant efforts of these heroes!” The screen showed the Avengers, Ava only recognizing a few like Iron Man, Captain America, and Agent Barton. There were many more, however, and amidst them was none other than Scott.

“Did they do it?” she whispered. “Did they fix it?”

“Yes,” Bill said. “They did it.”

Ava ran to the window and looked out. On the street, people milled about, returning to their houses or looking for lost belongings. She exhaled shakily, a wave of relief washing over her. Everything was back to normal.

An hour later, Luis—who Ava hadn’t realized had been gone—returned with a carload of people. Hank, Hope, Janet, and newcomers Maggie Lang, Jim Paxton, Dave and Kurt reunited with the survivors. Cassie was overjoyed to have her mother and stepfather back, and Luis had his friends again. Out of all the faces, Ava was glad to see Janet’s most of all.

“It was so strange,” Janet said when asked about what happened. “It was like I blacked out, and I woke up in this place. It was orange, and Hank and Hope were there as well.”

“Heaven?” Ava asked.

“No,” Janet said. “Something different.”

That night, everyone left. Maggie and Jim took Cassie, Luis left with Dave and Kurt, and Hank, Hope, and Janet went home together. The house felt oddly empty without everyone there, but Ava was relieved for it to be just the two of them again.

“You alright?” Bill asked, handing her a cup of coffee as they both watched the TV.

“Yes,” she replied, taking a sip. “I’m tired, but happy. I almost don’t know what to do with myself now that there’s no one to look after.”

“Relax,” he said. “You need it.”

“One day I want to be like them,” she said as an image of the Avengers flashed across the screen once again, “to make up for all the bad things I’ve done.”

“You already are.”

She huffed. “You’re just saying that.”

“You may not be saving the world, but you’ve protected the people around you, and that’s just as heroic as any Avenger in my book.”

His words settled deep in her heart, and they meant the world to her.

Two days later, Scott returned to them. Bill saw the jet landing in the backyard, and he and Ava went out to greet him. They expected him to be accompanied by Agent Barton or someone similar, but most certainly not Captain America.

Ava froze at the sight of the muscular figure descending the ramp behind Scott, and nearly turned and ran in the other direction. However, it was too late as the Captain had already seen her.

“Miss Starr?” he asked.

“Y-yes?” she stammered, glancing at Scott who was grinning like a maniac.

“I’ve heard a great deal about you from Scott,” he said. “He said you were a fan of mine, and convinced me to come meet you.”

Ava shot a glare that promised death at Scott, who just kept on grinning. “I’m not a fan, not really. It’s just that my father and I owe you our freedom with the fall of SHIELD.”

He shook hands with the both of them. “I’m glad to have set you free, if inadvertently. Scott says you’re quite the hero.”

She opened her mouth to protest, but Bill broke in. “She is. She protected us from the looters for the past three weeks.”

The Captain eyed her with something she dared to imagine was admiration. “It seems you have the makings of an Avenger. If you ever wanted to join us, we’d be more than happy to have you.”

She was stunned, barely able to stammer out a farewell as Scott and the Captain left for Scott’s house. As the jet departed, she looked at Bill and started laughing. She was happier than she ever had been before.

On her twenty-fifth birthday, Bill gave her the best gift she could ever receive. Scott and Cassie threw together a party, and it was enjoyable. Cassie gave her a Captain America doll, which she gladly accepted, and Scott gave her a DVD of Casper the Friendly Ghost, which earned him a couch cushion to the face. Bill gave her a card, but said he had been clueless on what to get her, which she didn’t mind.

However, once Scott and Cassie had gone home, he presented her with a simple white envelope. “This is for you.”

“What is it?” she asked.

“Open it.”

She did so, pulling out the papers within. They looked official, stamped with seal of the U.S. government, and she read over them, curious.

“I figured it was time to make it official,” Bill said as she read. “So much has happened…I wanted to before we get attacked by aliens again or something.”

She read on, her face slowly morphing into a shocked expression.

“You can keep your name,” Bill went on. “I would never want to discredit Elihas.”

She looked up at him, the papers falling from her nerveless hands. She could muster no words.

“Is that a yes?” he asked, looking quite nervous.

She ran to him and hugged him, crying until she could cry no more. Even he shed a few tears at the relief of finally having her as his true daughter.

From that day forward, Bill Foster was her father legally, finally gaining the title to the role he had played since she was seven years old, and neither of them could have been happier. She had a future as an Avenger, and she had her father. She was no longer the Ghost she had been in the beginning; she was Ava Starr, and she had her whole life ahead of her.


End file.
